Monday, September 12, 2005
Head East, Young Man
Danilo Di Luca turns the pedals in anger once again in defense of his lead in the ProTour overall series lead. His return to racing comes in the highly prestigious Tour of Poland, which the UCI in its infinite wisdom chose to promote to its highest category.
Considering that some mainstays of the European cycling calendar – such as last weekend’s Paris-Brussels – didn’t make the cut, the choice for inclusion of the Polish tour seems at first a bit odd. Granted, it is only a single race and with a calendar with some 30 races on the schedule the impact won’t be the same as when the UCI put such races as the HEW-Cyclassics on the World Cup circuit. And yes, the UCI is right in trying to promote the sport beyond its traditional borders, especially to the countries in Eastern Europe that not only have a good cycling tradition, but have also contributed some of the top riders to the professional peloton.
But why the Tour of Poland? Ok, so it has a history – apparently it has been around since 1928. And it could prove to be the Oscar Friere of the ProTour calendar – known by no one but his parents when he took his first world championship but certainly confirming his qualities as a rider subsequently.
Granted, with the exception of the Tour and maybe the Monuments, it can be argued that the riders make the race, not the reverse. So Danilo Di Luca and company can take the first steps (or pedal strokes) toward establishing the Tour of Poland as the preeminent race of Eastern Europe today. Still, the UCI had another choice which they disregarded in the Peace Tour. Certainly that race carried a lot of political baggage – it was, after all, designed as a showcase of the athletic talent of the communist world, and even the name carried political overtones. In case you don’t recall, this was also traditionally the biggest annual amateur race. You know, where out Cat 1 and 2 riders would go up against Ivan the steel factory “worker” from Leningrad or “”Boris” from the agricultural combine in Ukraine. Or at least that part of the steel factory and the agricultural combine dedicated to pumping promising Soviet youth full of performance enhancing drugs.
Nonetheless, nearly 20 years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, so discounting the Peace Race on grounds of its political orientation seem a bit off. Granted the race has fallen on financial difficulties in recent years – so much so that the race will not be held this year – but much of the financial hardship came largely as a result of the UCI’s unwillingness to accord the race a higher status in the cycling calendar. For years it continued as one of the lowest ranked races, by rule limiting the number of GS-I teams that could be invited, and therefore also the number of pros that had written the history of the race in previous years. The low ranking and inability to bring back former stars obviously hurt the race’s ability to attract top level sponsors.
But by signaling last year that the race would be included in the ProTour, the organizers likely could have arranged a financial package to keep the race viable. The benefits for the ProTour would have been the inclusion of a multi-national (in most recent years, the Peace Race went through Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland) race in Eastern Europe, while also signaling to that audience that the UCI not only recognized, but appreciated, their own cycling traditions and history.
Considering that some mainstays of the European cycling calendar – such as last weekend’s Paris-Brussels – didn’t make the cut, the choice for inclusion of the Polish tour seems at first a bit odd. Granted, it is only a single race and with a calendar with some 30 races on the schedule the impact won’t be the same as when the UCI put such races as the HEW-Cyclassics on the World Cup circuit. And yes, the UCI is right in trying to promote the sport beyond its traditional borders, especially to the countries in Eastern Europe that not only have a good cycling tradition, but have also contributed some of the top riders to the professional peloton.
But why the Tour of Poland? Ok, so it has a history – apparently it has been around since 1928. And it could prove to be the Oscar Friere of the ProTour calendar – known by no one but his parents when he took his first world championship but certainly confirming his qualities as a rider subsequently.
Granted, with the exception of the Tour and maybe the Monuments, it can be argued that the riders make the race, not the reverse. So Danilo Di Luca and company can take the first steps (or pedal strokes) toward establishing the Tour of Poland as the preeminent race of Eastern Europe today. Still, the UCI had another choice which they disregarded in the Peace Tour. Certainly that race carried a lot of political baggage – it was, after all, designed as a showcase of the athletic talent of the communist world, and even the name carried political overtones. In case you don’t recall, this was also traditionally the biggest annual amateur race. You know, where out Cat 1 and 2 riders would go up against Ivan the steel factory “worker” from Leningrad or “”Boris” from the agricultural combine in Ukraine. Or at least that part of the steel factory and the agricultural combine dedicated to pumping promising Soviet youth full of performance enhancing drugs.
Nonetheless, nearly 20 years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, so discounting the Peace Race on grounds of its political orientation seem a bit off. Granted the race has fallen on financial difficulties in recent years – so much so that the race will not be held this year – but much of the financial hardship came largely as a result of the UCI’s unwillingness to accord the race a higher status in the cycling calendar. For years it continued as one of the lowest ranked races, by rule limiting the number of GS-I teams that could be invited, and therefore also the number of pros that had written the history of the race in previous years. The low ranking and inability to bring back former stars obviously hurt the race’s ability to attract top level sponsors.
But by signaling last year that the race would be included in the ProTour, the organizers likely could have arranged a financial package to keep the race viable. The benefits for the ProTour would have been the inclusion of a multi-national (in most recent years, the Peace Race went through Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland) race in Eastern Europe, while also signaling to that audience that the UCI not only recognized, but appreciated, their own cycling traditions and history.
